Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-01-01
A CHAT" WITH THE STRANGER

The outlook for California is promising
No country possessed of such great natural
advantages as is this can go backward
when once the attention OF the world is
intelligently directed to it. In the pio-
neer era we were known only for our pla-
GERS, our natural wonders and our magnif-
cent distances. But as the fever heat of
gold-seeking declined, the necessities of
men drew their attention 10 the soil, and
out OF that has developed our present
strength.
It is that atop the soil, however, which
most fortifes our pride. To place the eli
matte advantages of the Sacramento valley
upon the lands along the Kalamazoo or
the Wabash would be practically to trans
fer California to Michigan or Indiana.
When the RECORD UNION said that in
California we sell climate and throw in the
! land it was no jest, but literal fact The
product indicates always the conditions
under which it was produced. So the or
ange is the type of the equable tempera-
ture, the warm suns, the unfrozen soil, the
unwintered wales of our State. The palm
waves its spiny leaves only in semi-tropic
breezes, the olive withers in northern
blasts, but yields its fruit in the embrace
of the almost perennial summer of CaIifor-
MIA. We deal, then, in the capacity Of our
soil under the climatic conditions that
bless it.
This journal viii go far and wide to-day
among many people who may have vague
or exaggerated ideas of this State, and it is
our office to disabuse their minds Of mis-
conceptions and enlarge their understand
ings concerning the facts about California.
This, in the many papers that will be
found in this issue of the REcoRD-U MON,
we have endeavored to do, ard we are free
to say that we have at least measur-
ably accomplished the task. In California
we have come into that calm in
which good judgment advises Us that
the worst thing We can do for our State Is
to exaggerate its claims, or fancifully en-
large upon its many advantages. The truth
half told may be mountain OF lies, but
laid bare is a fountain of purity.
Those who cast their eyes longingly to-
ward this land of promise must, therefore,
be told that all our gold does not glitter
for the mere seeking that our lands do
not yield their bounty without applied
toll; that the sweat of the brow is here, as
everywhere, the price of bread; that in
California, as in all other lands, there is no
reward to be won, nc true excellence
attained without labor
California certainly has its drawbacks
what land has not ?-but they are few
and trivial, and yield to frugality
and industry. We are quite distant from
Eastern markets, but our products have
greater keeping qualities, and when they
reach the retailers booth are more in de-
mand and at better prices than the prod
uets Of climates alternately humid and
torrid. We have vast territory and small
population, but the latter is marvelously
augmenting, and the former happily can
not decrease. IF we have not such frugal
habits as our Eastern brethren, we are
rapidly learning the lessons of economy
if our social system is somewhat less SYM
metrical and methodical than that Of the
great East, we are earnestly laboring for
an infusion of desirable social elements.
We have a class among US that alb
serbs much of labor vigor and antago-
nizes even frugal methods of living
but we have entered npon the work of
checking its increase, and exIled from its
native soil, it has no reproductive powers.
We have too many laborers who have
been contaminated by the past era of easy
living and the present of Oriental compe-
tition; but the thrifty mechanics, the
humble builders, the sober, toiling
men Of muscle. are multiplying with US.
We are bidding for more people, but
want neither the dependent nor the thrift
less. California is just now the last OF
places for the man without some resources.
The home-seekers whom We want are those
possessed of some means, any amount Of
pluck and Unreasonable staying" quail
ity. For such there is invitation here to
golden opportunities and marvellous priv
ileges. For such we have on every hand
the land and climate and product to sat-
isfy the taste or suit capacity. For such
We can promise speedier results in home
building and independence than any other
section the wide acreage Of the Union can
guarantee.
This is the class that is coming to US,
and so we say the outlook for California is
promising, and that country possessed
of such natural advantages must go for
ward. With the incoming of these
desirable people, who come expecting to
labor and to deserve; who do not an,ici-
pate life wholly of ease, nor yet serv-
itude to unending toll who have self
reliance, are imbued with hope, possessed
of strong will-power, and have something
in their purse withal, we shall go on in
present prosperity to near future SO rich
with the reward of plenty, social priv
ileges, commercial strength, internal vigor
and self-dependence, as to make Cali
fornia the most independent, bOuntifuI,